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Background Midazolam is frequently used for sedation during spinal anesthesia. However, external environmental factors, such as bright surgical lights, may hamper patient relaxation, which may lead to an increase in the dose of midazolam required and the likelihood of adverse drug effects. We investigated whether using an eye mask to block the external environment could reduce midazolam requirements during spinal anesthesia. Methods Participants aged 18–‒80 years, scheduled for elective surgery under spinal anesthesia, were randomly divided into a masked group (wearing eye masks during surgery, n = 20) and a control group (no mask, n = 18). The sedation level was assessed using a modified Observer Assessment of Alertness and Sedation (MOAA/S) scale. Midazolam (1 mg) was incrementally administered every 5 min until moderate sedation (MOAA/S score of 3) was achieved. The bispectral index (BIS) was monitored, and the onset and maintenance times of a BIS Results The two groups had similar demographic characteristics. The midazolam requirements were significantly lower in the masked group than in the control group (2.8 mg vs. 3.7 mg, P = 0.024). However, the onset and maintenance times for a BIS Conclusions Blocking the external environment with an eye mask during spinal anesthesia can reduce the requirement for sedatives, such as midazolam. Trial registration The trial was retrospectively registered with the Clinical Research Information Service (No. KCT0005528, 15/10/2020) entitled “Can we reduce an amount of sleeping pills just by blocking light?”.

In 2008, the National Archives of Korea initiated the Archive Village project for the purpose of protecting valuable private records and enhancing the awareness of archival culture. To justify the expense of the government-supported project and determine its future direction, it is necessary to analyze the current status of the project. To do that, the researchers visited an Archive Village in I county and examined its accessibility, exhibition contents, facilities, equipment, etc., through observation. Interviews were also conducted with the person in charge of the project in the National Archives of Korea, as well as eight residents and three persons who were involved in building and managing the Archive Village in I county. Based on the results of the observation and interviews, the study suggests recommendations to improve the operation of the Archive Village in I county. The findings of the study will help other villages plan acquisition and management, as well as how to make important private records in local areas available.

Psoriasis is a disorder caused by genetic and immunological factors. Leptin, a peptide hormone secreted predominantly from adipose tissue, regulates energy intake and expenditure, as well as the T-helper response. There have been conflicting reports regarding serum levels of leptin and adiponectin in patients with psoriasis. In the present study, we measured serum levels of leptin and adiponectin in Korean patients with psoriasis. Twenty-four patients with psoriasis and fifteen control subjects were included in the study. Serum leptin and adiponectin levels were determined by an immunometric sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The mean serum leptin concentration in patients with psoriasis was higher than in controls, and the difference was statistically significant. In contrast, serum adiponectin levels in patients with psoriasis were significantly decreased compared with healthy controls. Leptin levels in vitamin D-deficient patients were statistically significantly higher than in vitamin D-sufficient patients. Serum adiponectin concentrations showed a negative correlation with body mass index (BMI) and psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) in patients with psoriasis. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that leptin and adiponectin may play a role in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis and may be useful biomarkers indicating severity of psoriasis in Korean patients. Graphical Abstract Keywords: Adiponectin, Leptin, Metabolic Syndrome, Psoriasis INTRODUCTION Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that is mediated by elements of the innate and adaptive immune systems (1). Although the influence of environmental factors on psoriasis is not precisely defined, body mass index (BMI) has been reported to be one of the important associated factors (2). Leptin, a protein secreted by adipose tissue, plays important roles in metabolism and immunity. It regulates body weight and exerts other biologic functions that modulate hematopoiesis, angiogenesis, and immune responses (3). Leptin is also involved in inflammatory processes involving T cells and has been reported to modulate T-helper cell activity in the cellular immune response. Hence, leptin has three roles in inflammation: it activates monocytes and macrophages; potentiates the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-9; and directs T-cell differentiation to the Th1 phenotype (4). Additionally, leptin has been shown to have stimulatory roles in keratinocyte proliferation, the expression of adhesion molecules, and angiogenesis (5, 6). Adiponectin is another adipocyte-specific secretory protein that is abundant in circulation. Serum levels of adiponectin are decreased in obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), and hypoadiponectinemia, which are diseases thought to be closely associated with the metabolic syndrome (5). In consideration of metabolic disorders seen in patients with psoriasis, it seems that there could be some abnormalities in serum leptin and adiponectin levels in psoriatic patients. However, the results regarding serum levels of leptin and adiponectin in patients with psoriasis have been conflicting (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Here, we measured the serum levels of leptin and adiponectin in Korean patients with psoriasis to investigate their roles in inflammatory and metabolic aspects.

Infraorbital laxity is a common problem that increases with age. Blepharoplasty with lipectomy is a very commonly performed surgical procedure to treat this problem; however, it is invasive and is associated with the potential for re-emergence. Therefore, young patients may prefer a non-surgical procedure rather than to a surgical procedure. Intense-focused ultrasound (IFUS) has emerged as an effective, non-surgical, tissue-tightening procedure.This study assessed the safety and efficacy of IFUS (Ulthera system, Ulthera Inc, Mesa, AZ, U.S.A.) for facial tightening in Asian patients with infraorbital laxity.We studied 15 patients who were treated with an IFUS device applied to both lower eyelids. The primary outcome measure was an objective improvement in a paired comparison of pre-treatment and post treatment (6 months) photographs. A secondary outcome measure was patient satisfaction as measured by a questionnaire.The mean patient age was 50 years (range, 27-69). All patients received one to two treatments with intense-focused ultrasound. All patients in the study experienced both subjective and objective improvement.IFUS can be used as a non-invasive, skin-tightening procedure for infraorbital laxity. No serious, permanent, or delayed side effects were noted up to 6 months post treatment. Thus, this procedure can be effective and safe in the treatment of decreased laxity of the lower eyelids.

We present a case of cytokeratin (CK) 20-positive large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) presenting with multiple skin metastases as the primary manifestation. The patient was a 55-year-old man who presented with a one- month history of subcutaneous skin colored nodules of various sizes on his trunk. Pathologic examination of the skin revealed a nested and solid proliferation of large undifferentiated cells with vesicular nuclei and prominent nucleoli. Tumor cells were found to be immunohistochemically positive for CK 20, chromogranin A, synaptophysin, and CD56. Based on these features, the tumor was diagnosed as a large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with multiple skin metastases. Computed tomographic (CT) imaging found metastatic foci in the liver, pleura, bone, and lymph nodes. We were unable to identify the primary site of origin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of a large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with a primary manifestation of multiple skin metastases.

This work is about intra-sentence segmentation performed before syntactic analysis of long sentences composed of at least 20 words in an English-Korean machine translation system. A long sentence has been known to spend enormous computational time and space when it is analyzed syntactically. It can also produce poor translation results. To resolve this problem, we partitioned a long sentence into a few segments to analyze each segment separately. To partition the sentence, firstly, we tried to find candidates for each segment position in the sentence. We then generated input vectors representing lexical contexts of the corresponding candidates and also used the support vector machines (SVM) algorithm to learn and recognize the appropriate segment positions. We used three kernel functions, the linear kernel, the polynomial kernel and the Gaussian kernel, to find optimal hyperplanes classifying proper positions and we compared results obtained from each kernel function. As a result of the experiments, we acquired 0.81, 0.83, and 0.79 f-measure values from the linear, polynomial and Gaussian kernel, respectively.

Korean economy has changed rapidly since the 1997 Korean financial crisis. This article investigates whether the inter-industry wage differentials in the Korean manufacturing industry are consistent over time and how the inter-industry wage structure has changed after the financial crisis. We used the 1995 and 1999 survey report on the wage structure–Korea. Our empirical results provide evidences for a wider inter-industry wage differentials and changes of the wage structure. After the crisis, company size, region (live in capital), sex, tenure, education are more critical to determine wages. According to factor analysis, the job quality factor is most closely related to wages before the crisis, while the industry attributes factor does in 1999.

Item does not contain fulltext Extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma is a rare malignant soft-tissue tumour that is typically in the deep soft tissues of the lower extremity. The tumour is usually a well-defined, multinodular soft-tissue mass without calcifications. A 62-year-old woman with a history of nasopharyngeal cancer presented with a palpable mass in the anterior neck. Radiologically, the lesion was a well-defined soft-tissue mass with the extensive calcifications on various imaging examinations. Although this lesion was histopathologically diagnosed as extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, the unusual imaging findings were challenging and very intriguing.

The purpose of this study was to compare student's satisfaction with school food service environment to improve the quality of middle school meal service. A survey was conducted of 680 students (boys 246, girls 433) from 6 middle schools providing school meals from October to November 2007. The questionnaires were directly distributed to the subjects for comparison of satisfaction of school meals depending on the eating place. As for the quantity of food, classroom group (3.40) expressed significantly higher satisfaction than cafeteria group (3.16, P < 0.01), but as for the satisfaction on hygiene, classroom group (2.76) showed significantly lower satisfaction than cafeteria group (3.03, P < 0.01). About the satisfaction of school meal environment, classroom group showed more satisfaction on distribution time, eating place, eating atmosphere (P < 0.001). The classroom group showed higher satisfaction than cafeteria group in cases of quantity, diversity of types of soup, dessert, and the cost of school meal. To improve eating place and hygiene of school meal, sufficient cafeteria space and pleasant environment is needed to be established.

Children’s food behaviors have been expressed in a various ways because of recent changes in their family environment. Thus, this study was performed to investigate in-depth qualitative research on the mother’s perception on children’s food behaviors by focused group interview. This study was designed in four steps of planning, collection of participants, process, and analysis. Participants for the focus group interview were recruited and sampled from households with elementary school students in the Seoul and Gyeonggido areas. Groups were divided by total income and education expense levels. 1) High income household: It is better to improve currently existing web sites for nutrition education. 2) Mid income household: Easy, practical, and inexpensive off-line cooking class/nutrition education classes for mothers are needed. Nutrition programs for children should be developed through mass media and be promoted in the broadcasting circle. 3) Low income household: Motivation is required for mothers' education and the serious nutritional problems of children should be informed through mass media and home correspondence from school. And interesting educational materials should be developed for children to read whenever they want.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Commensality, eating together with others, is a major representation of human sociality. In recent time, environments around commensality have changed significantly due to rapid social changes, and the decline of commensality is perceived as a serious concern in many modern societies. This study employs a cross-cultural analysis of university students in two East Asian countries, and examines cross-cultural variations of perceptions and actual practices of commensality and solo-eating. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The analysis was drawn from a free-list survey and a self-administrative questionnaires of university students in urban Korea and Japan. The free-listing survey was conducted with a small cohort to explore common images and meanings of commensality and solo-eating. The self-administrative questionnaire was developed based on the result of the free-list survey, and conducted with a larger cohort to examine reasons and problems of practices and associated behaviors and food intake. RESULTS: We found that Korean subjects tended to show stronger associations between solo-eating and negative emotions while the Japanese subjects expressed mixed emotions towards the practice of solo-eating. In the questionnaire, more Korean students reported they prefer commensality and tend to eat more quantities when they eat commensally. In contrast, more Japanese reported that they do not have preference on commensality and there is no notable difference in food quantities when they eat commensally and alone. Compared to the general Korean cohort finding, more proportion of overweight and obese groups of Korean subjects reported that they tend to eat more when they are alone than normal and underweight groups. This difference was not found in the overweight Japanese subjects. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed cross-cultural variations of perceptions and practices of commensality and solo-eating in a non-western setting.

In this paper, we propose an intelligent grading system using heterogeneous linguistic resources. We used latent semantic kernel as one resource in former research and found that a deficit of indexed terms gave rise to performance bottleneck. To solve this, we expand answer papers, written by students and instructors, by utilizing one of widely used linguistic resources, WordNet. We supplement the papers with words semantically related to indexed terms of papers. The added words are selected from the synonyms and hyponyms on WordNet. And to get rid of the criterion decision problem, we use partial score of each question and evaluate the correlation coefficient between grading results of the proposed approach and human instructors. The proposed approach in this research achieves maximally 0.94 correlation coefficient to instructors, which is 0.06 higher than that of the former research.

Extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) is an uncommon intraepithelial neoplasm that most commonly arises on the vulva and perianal region. Very few cases of EMPD revealing a histological Bowenoid appearance have been reported. This study describes scrotal EMPD presenting with histological features of Bowen's disease in a 79-year-old man. He presented with a 5-year history of a pruritic erythematous plaque and a verrucous papule on the scrotum. The verrucous papule histopathologically showed Bowenoid features, and the erythematous plaque demonstrated acantholytic EMPD. Immunohistochemical findings revealed strong expression for carcinoembryonic antigen, Cam 5.2, epithelial membrane antigen, cytokeratin (CK) 7, and pancytokeratin (AE1/AE3) in both areas, but negative CK20 staining, supporting the overall diagnosis of primary acantholytic anaplastic EMPD. This is the first reported case of acantholytic anaplastic EMPD in the Korean literature.